Carl W. Kenney II is an award winning columnist and novelist. He is committed to engaging readers into a meaningful discussion related to matters that impact faith and society. He grapples with pondering the impact faith has on public space while seeking to understand how public space both hinders and enhances the walk of faith.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Big money and an un informed electorate equals mid-term change

"A properly functioning democracy
depends on an informed electorate," is a quote often attributed to Thomas
Jefferson.It’s a shame we can’t find
the statement in the writings of Jefferson.

There are other quotes I wish I could tag
on Jefferson.

"The end of democracy and the defeat
of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of
lending institutions and moneyed incorporations," is a good one, but there’s
no proof it comes from Jefferson.

Both quotations would go a long way in
describing what happened during the most recent election.If those words actually came from Jefferson,
we could dub them prophetic utterance and blame the Republican takeover on an
ill-informed electorate and the deep pockets of corporations.

My colleagues in the press point to this
mid-term election as part of a longstanding cycle.For more than 30 years now, the party of second
term presidents gets brutalized during those elections.No matter how strong the economy or the state
of the union, the opposition party reaps the benefit of the low approval of the
president.

It happened with Regan, papa and son Bush,
Clinton and now it’s happened with Obama. It would be helpful to insert
Jefferson quote regarding the intelligence of the electorate to explain the tradition
of mid-term disdain.Could it be that
voters lack the intelligence to interpret economic success when it dropping in
their pockets?

How do voters account for unpopularity in
the face of a decreasing deficit, lower gas prices, a stock market that has
reached all-time highs, dropping health care cost and soldiers coming home
after fighting a war many failed to understand?

We could blame an uneducated electorate on
the massive disconnect between the state of the economy and the lack of
confidence people have in President Obama. Or, maybe there are reasons for the
push to impeach Obama.Serious issues
like: he wore the wrong color suit, he held a cup of coffee instead of properly
saluting members of the military or he’s not from America. You know, credible
stuff that we, as a nation, simply can’t overlook.

Oh, he is black, but that couldn’t be it. Could
it?

It would be much easier to credit Obama’s
pathetic popularity on an electorate with the IQ of a banana muffin, but we can’t
do that.It has to be something profounder
than a large mass of people ill-equipped to read between the lines of bullstank
peddled by both sides of the media wagon train.

Then there’s the money.

That second quote could, if it were
actually an authentic Jefferson statement, give credence to the claim that this
mid-election shift was purchased by the Koch Brothers. Both sides of the track
are guilty of depending more on cash than principles to influence voters.How else can we explain the $100 million
spent to elect a senator in North Carolina?

Read the prophecy one more time. "The
end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when
government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed
incorporations," says the quote that may or may not be Jefferson.

That’s it!

Democracy comes to an end when the money
changers take over the Church. Sorry, wrong convention, but it applies there
too. Things change when folks with big pockets use their money to influence how
people think.At that point, and darn it
we may be there, those who are either too lazy to find the truth, or easily
persuaded by the conspiracy theory linked to the President of the United States,
get in line to throw eggs in the direction of the White House.

You know we can’t trust big government.You certainly can’t trust a man who isn’t a
Christian, is actually a Muslim born in Africa who is in partnership with socialist
from around the world. We can’t trust him, and I know it’s true because I heard
it on FOX News.

You know the press doesn’t lie unless it’s
the commy liberal press over on MSNBC.They’re trying to destroy America. This is the point where you wave the
American flag with a Bible on your lap and an assault weapon in the other hand.

Yup, that’s America!

If those quotes were truly the words and
thoughts of Jefferson, we could argue it’s a combination of the two – an uneducated
electorate and corporate money.It’s
like an old joke – what happens when you take an uneducated electorate and put
them under the control of people with loads of money?

The answer is, beat the drum.

Shucks dang it, it’s the President’s fault.
Kick out everybody on his side. Punish all of them for siding with that
rascal.Impeach all of ‘em.

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Carl W. Kenney II

Carl was named the best serious columnist of 2011 by the North Carolina Press Association for his work with the News & Observer's community paper The Durham News and in 2016 by the Missouri Press Association for his columns in the Columbia Missourian. He is a columnist with the News & Observer and Co-Executive Producer of "God of the Oppressed" an upcoming documentary film on black liberation theology. He is a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Missouri - School of Journalism and Adjunct Instructor at Duke University, the Center for Documentary Studies. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He furthered his education at Duke University and attained a Master of Divinity. He was named a Fellow in Pastoral Leadership Development at the Princeton Theological Seminary on May 14, 2005. He is a freelance writer with his commentary appearing in The Washington Post, Religious News Services,The Independent Weekly and The Durham Herald-Sun. Carl is the author of two novels: “Preacha’ Man” and the sequel “Backslide”.
He has led congregations in Missouri and North Carolina